NIU Students to Pitch Business Plan to Belvidere Company

Looking for assistance, the Belvidere-based company turned to the College of Business Experiential Learning Center at Northern Illinois University.

The results of that collaboration will be on display, 4 p.m., Wednesday, May 3, when the NIU students present their proposed marketing plan to Deveco executives. The presentation will take place in the Experiential Learning Center in Barsema Hall on NIU’s DeKalb campus.

The ELC brings together teams of NIU students who tackle real-world projects for companies and not-for-profit agencies. The six-person team for the Deveco project includes three marketing majors, a finance major, an MBA student and a visual communications major from the university’s College of Visual and Performing Arts.

The students were tasked with developing a plan for taking Deveco’s corn-based cleaning solution to the consumer market and were given free reign to tinker with everything from product color and packaging to promotional materials. They also researched market potential, possible sales venues and used that research to develop marketing plan for the product.

“Projects like this are a wonderful opportunity for students,” says faculty coach Joan Petros. “It allows students to experience many of the challenges of bringing a product to market in the real world, while at the same time adding value for a local company.”

Founded in 1965 to serve as a development and engineering company for the metal finishing industry, the company produces a wide range of metal cleaning and coating products for industry.

The new bio-based cleaner represents a new venture for Deveco in many regards, not the least of which is that it is the first product created by the company aimed at the general consumer audience.

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